September 18, 2001, in Eritrea: A memory that never fades

It feels
like it happened just yesterday. It was 7 a.m. on an average day in September in
Asmara, Eritrea. My brain was still
reshuffling the information I had gathered about the terrorist attacks on the WorldTradeCenter a week earlier. I
was writing an article on it for the next issue of Setit,
the twice-weekly newspaper of which I was editor-in-chief.

I was in
bed when my wife turned on the radio to listen to the morning news. “Starting
today, September 18, 2001, the government has ordered all private presses to
stop their publications.” The disturbing words of the presenter of DimtsiHafash Radio, the government station, suddenly froze my train of
thoughts. The official statement went on to accuse us of violating press laws
and ignoring the warnings we had been given. I felt as if I was dreaming. I didn’t
move my head. I was still under the blanket.

In those
days, our country, jammed between Ethiopia
and Yemen on the shores of
the Red Sea, was Africa’s youngest nation with
a private press that was even younger. Like America,
Eritrea
had fought a war of independence (ours was 30 years long), and enacted a
constitution guaranteeing a free press. Some of us in the media were former
fighters in the liberation struggle or in the bloody conflict with Ethiopia that
had ended a year earlier. As a result, many of us looked to the future with
great hopes and a dream of seeing a democratic government established in our
beloved country. For instance, I remember all of us writing in our editorials
about the implementation of the constitution one week, fighting corrupt
generals another, and the government’s policy of compulsory work imposed on
Asmara University students the week after that.

However, because we had challenged the government or its policies, we were
facing increasing hostility and enduring
police harassment. By September 2001, the once-united ruling elite who led us
to independence with the promise of democracy split over rebel leader President
Isaias
Afeworki’s resistance to the
fulfillment of this promise: the implementation of our constitution. We covered both sides of this
debate in the columns of our newspapers.

That
September morning, I saw the last edition of my newspaper being sold on the
street as I drove downtown and uptown through Asmara. I spoke with my sources and learned some
more shocking news: Eleven senior officials who had criticised the president in
an open letter published in Setit had
been thrown in jail!

At our
office, the staff was sitting in the front yard debating that morning’s developments.

The oldest
member of our staff, and a talented writer, Fessehaye Yohannes(who
is also known as Joshua) was
optimistic, like most. “They just shut us down because they don’t want us to
write about the jailed senior officials. They will let us continue our work
once the issue is settled,” he said. I did not believe that, but I hoped he was
right.

Around
noon, I met with Matewos Habteab, editor of Meqaleh
newspaper, and Amanuel Asrat, editor of Zemen
newspaper at Rendez-Vous, a café near Asmara’s
Cinema
Roma, a relic of Italian colonial, art deco architecture. We were friends
and had strengthened our friendships while we were enrolled at the University of Asmara. Matewos, who studied
mathematics, and Amanuel, who studied soil and water conservation, were also great
contributors to my newspaper before they launched their own. Now we were confronted
with the most critical moment of our young journalistic careers. We needed each
other’s advice more than at any other time.

As Matewos
and I shared tea and Amanuel
sipped an espresso macchiato, we agreed to take extra precautions and resolved to write a letter to the
Ministry of Information to demand clarifications about the specific reasons for
the government’s decision to close our newspapers. Medhanie Haile, deputy
editor of KesteDebena, Yusuf Mohamed Ali,
editor of Tsigenay, and Saïd
Abdelkader, the editor of Admas, joined
us and signed the letter too. Amanuel and I handed the letter to the Ministry
of Information on September 21, 2001. I didn’t know it would be the
last time I would see all these talented editors.

Luckily, I
was not at home on September 23, the night the security agents came to arrest
me. But my colleagues were arrested that night. Four of them—Fessehaye
Yohannes, Yusuf Mohamed Ali, Saïd Abdelkader and Medhanie Haile—have
already died in prison and we know nothing about where the rest are. That’s
heartbreaking.

Unlike my
colleagues, I still have a chance to practice journalism. Canada has
allowed me to do what my country denied me. I have started a community
newspaper, Meftih, to serve Eritrean Canadians and
help them integrate into Canadian society. There is no government interference
or police harassment here and there is respect for the rule of law. In Eritrea,
it’s not the law that rules, it’s one person that rules the law. I hope that one
day my country will enjoy the blessings that I experience here in Canada and that
my colleagues will be eventually set free.

Aaron Berhane, former editor-in-chief of Eritrea’s now-banned largest private newspaper, Setit, is the publisher of Meftih
newspaper in Canada.

Aaron Berhane, former editor-in-chief of Eritrea’s now-banned largest private newspaper, Setit, escaped arrest in September 2001 and launched Meftih newspaper in Canada.

Comments

I just read your well written piece on that black September day when the Eritrean dream statrted to evaporate and gave way to the night mare that is still going on. Luckily, you and few other jounalists are free, reminding the world what has happened on that day. It is indeed sad to see a country which fought 30 years to be free only to find itself its freedom hijacked. I hope a day will come and our beloved country will be free again so that you and all of those journalists who are behind bars can write freely. I was not in Eritrea when the promising young press was everywhere in the streets of our capital but had managed to read a few including your setit through sme friends who unlike me were able to go to Eritrea at the time.

I am glad you are free writing freely and remembering your colleagues smoe of whom like Joshua and others have already lost their lives. Please continue writing

This is so sad and shocking. I wonder what is inherently wrong with our African so-called liberators! We must rethink and develop a 21st century strategies to stop all these dictators from infringing on the rights of all African citizens once and fro all.

I feel very sorry for the families that have to go through the problems enacted by the government. Especially because I am an Eritrean mother. I feel very annoyed that no one is acting out against the government and are spending time regarding their power and control.

Aaron,
it´s god that you share this information with us. It is also god that Eritreans all over the world now have their voices heard. This week there will be a lot of things happening in Sweden due to Dawit Isaak beeig swedish. On the evening of the 23rd there will be a TV program called Babel, a cultural program, on the public tv. They will have the full story of Dawit. On the book fare in Gothenburg on Septemberg 24-25 there will be a lot of seminars refering to Dawit.
Regards
Leif Öbrink
chairman of the Support Committee Free Dawit Isaak.

Thanks you Aaron, for your tribute for the brave Eritreans who are currently languishing in the hands of Mr. Isaias Afeweriks’ PFDJ dictatorial regime.
May Almighty GOD bless you all with good heath for many years to come, so that you may continue to give your services to the people of Eritrea.